The mind is illusion’s internal advertising agent

Much of today’s materialistic culture runs through advertising. Most multinational companies often spend far more on product promotion than on quality control.

Advertising agents are expert at persuading people into believing that their wants are their needs. In fact, the evil genius of advertising is that it can make people believe that they want more than their life things that they don’t need at all.

While the formidable persuasive power of advertisers is well known, much lesser known is the persuasive power of the internal advertiser: the mind. It is illusion’s advertising agent – it makes us go after the many products paraded by the illusory energy.

The mind is far more insidious than any other advertising agent because it doesn’t just persuade us – it pretends to be us. Because it lies inside us, it manipulates us into believing that its fancies are our fancies. So sinister and subversive is the mind’s spell that it makes us chase after trivialities, even risking in the process our financial security, moral integrity, emotional stability and spiritual sanctity.

Further, while we can just close the door on a persistent advertiser or even have one evicted, we can do neither with the mind – again because it exists inside us. Pertinently, the Bhagavad-gita (06.06) warns that the mind can be our worst enemy if it is uncontrolled, that is, if it is allowed to unrestrictedly cast its spell on us.

The most effective way to counter the mind’s incessant promotion of petty worldly things is to expose ourselves to the glorification of higher spiritual things, ultimately of the highest reality Krishna. By absorbing ourselves in Krishna and his service, we can generate an inner devotional momentum that silences and steamrolls the mind’s distracting propaganda – till the mind eventually becomes purified and joins the devotional movement of our heart towards him.